2018—Things to Remember and Celebrate

So, what’s special about 2018 and what do we have to look forward to? Well, it’s the Chinese Year of the Dog; the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI; and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. There will be a royal wedding, a royal baby, the World Cup, and the US Mid Term elections. This is the year that the wreck of the Titanic is opened as a dive site. For those of us with more arty interests, this is a big year for anniversaries and exhibitions.

Viennese Modernism

One hundred years ago, the Spanish flu pandemic killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide including Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Otto Wagner, Viennese architect, and Koloman Moser, co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, died in the same year. This year, Vienna is celebrating these four masters of modernism with a year-long programme titled ‘Beauty and the Abyss’. Exhibitions across the city’s many museums will include ‘Egon Schiele’ (23 February–4 November) and ‘Vienna around 1900! Klimt – Moser – Gerstl – Kokoschka’ (18 January–10 June), both at the Leopold Museum; ‘Wagner, Hoffmann, Loos and Furniture design in Viennese Modernism’ at the Imperial Furniture Collection (21 March–7 October); and ‘Stairway to Klimt’ at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (13 February–2 September).

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in 1868. On the sesquicentenary of his birth, Mackintosh’s native city of Glasgow is planning many celebrations across the year, perhaps most notably the reopening of the newly restored art nouveau Willow Tea Rooms. And at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, visitors will have the chance to view ‘Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Making the Glasgow Style’, a special exhibition of around 250 objects from stained glass and ceramics to graphics and architectural designs (30 March–14 August).

Chippendale

The tercentenary of the birth of famed Yorkshire-born cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (1718–79) will be celebrated this year with a series of exhibitions and events across the UK. The centrepiece of the programme is Leeds City Museum’s survey, which brings together original drawings, documents and key examples of Chippendale furniture. It opened on 9 February and runs until 9 June.

All great opportunities if you find yourself in one of the above cities!